Jack Spicer & The Temple Of Sorrow
by Noritsu
Summary: Jack Spicer is a Wu Raider and 'go to' guy for Master Fung & crew. Thirsty for some excitement? Then this mini adventure is for you. Follow Jack as he heads to the Temple of Sorrow and attempts to claim the Imo Gazer. Parallel universe. Story is finished.
1. Chapter 1

I've only been away from this thread since August but it seems like an eternity! Hope you enjoy my latest story. It's a departure from my usual Rai stories.  
**Storynote:** This fic contains some mild curse words and some mild violence. Even though there's a bit of death (just a bit) it's not what I would call 'graphic'. Still, I thought maybe I should follow the rating rule and label it 'T'. If, by the third chapter, you think that's overdoing it, let me know and I'll switch it back to 'K+'. Also, Rai & crew and Jack are in their mid-twenties in this fic.

**Xiaolin Showdown**

**Jack Spicer & The Temple of Sorrow**

Authoress: Noritsu

Disclaimer

I **do not** own the Xiaolin Showdown characters, or the Xiaolin Showdown universe. They are copyrighted and belong to Christie Hui and Warner Brothers.

The storyline, however, is mine. So no pilfering, please. Thanks.

**TUN** Publishing Company

November, 2007

**T**he**U**sual**N**onsense

**Chapter One**

Jack placed the heel of his boot against the file drawers of his desk and pushed away. The leather office chair began a slow spin and Jack put his boot on the floor, pushing off again so he'd gain more momentum.

The chair whirled around at a more moderate speed, and Jack leaned back against the chair, closing his eyes so he could concentrate better on the feel of the movement without being distracted by what his eyes were seeing.

Jack, in a word, was bored.

It had been exactly two weeks, four days, twenty-two minutes, and fourteen seconds that Dojo, or Master Fung, or anyone at the temple, had called to let him know that they had located the whereabouts of another Wu.

Jack had amused himself by going back over the cataloging status of the trinkets he kept in his own collection just to make sure that everything was how it should be. Of course it was. He'd called the few acquaintances he worked with from time to time – calling them 'friends' would be a bit of a stretch – to see if there was anything going on that he could help them with. As he'd suspected, even before he picked up the phone, they were all fine and well and didn't need any help with anything right at the moment.

Which figured.

The laws of gravity, and velocity finally saw to it that the chair was brought out of its twirling motion to a halt. Now what was he going to do? He mulled over the possible activities at his disposal that he could engage in to amuse himself.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

Like a coiled spring, Jack shot forward and pounced on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Jack, its Dojo."

"Dojo!" Jack exclaimed, as though the little dragon were a relative he hadn't spoken to in weeks. "What've you got for me?"

Dojo cleared his throat. "Um, you ever heard of the Temple of Sorrow?"

Jack's eyes glazed over and widened to the size of saucers. "The Temple of Sorrow… People have been looking for the Temple of Sorrow for ages! Is that where the next Wu is?"

He couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice as he spoke, or his thoughts as he waited, listening for what Dojo would say next. The Temple of Sorrow! What a trip that would be! And his name would be put down on all the official documentation stating that _he_ was the one that found it.

"Yeah," Dojo replied, "please get here as fast as you can. The Wu that's gone active is…um…pretty important. I have a feeling that the Heylin Group is going to be wanting in on this one."

"Really?" Jack replied, a sly smile curling the corners of his mouth. "Well then, I suppose I'm going to be wanting to arm myself to the teeth, yes?"

Jack flipped hurriedly through his closet. If there was even the slightest possibility that he might be meeting up with the Heylin Group, he wanted to make sure he was properly dressed for the occasion. He went back and forth in his mind, arguing with himself as to whether or not he was in a goth sort of mood or a kick-ass sort of mood. He thumbed past his skull and crossbones tee, and his monster head tee, and came to another tee that he usually reserved for occasions he considered special or out of the norm. It said 'Happiness Is A Loaded Glock'. His fingers lingered there for a moment, caressing the soft sheen of the cotton material. He smiled, realizing that he'd just made his decision.

He pulled off what he was wearing at the moment and proceeded to pull on black socks, a pair of black jeans, then a sturdy pair of black, high-top hiking boots. After this, he pulled on the glock tee and tucked it in, slipping a utility belt through the loops of his jeans. He pulled the jeans up just to his knee and strapped on two ankle daggers, one on each leg. He then attached two wrist daggers, one on each arm. The utility belt was loaded with various, small deadly throwing weapons, and the gun holster that he carried his glocks in was wrapped securely around his hips, and attached around his thighs, by two thin straps to help keep it in place. The thigh straps had a clip on which he secured two reload magazines for his glocks. He walked over and looked at himself in the mirror. With an approving nod to his reflection that he looked pretty damn good, he pulled on his black trench coat, and headed for the door.

xsxsxs

"So, what Wu is this that you couldn't mention to me over the phone?" Jack said, trying to keep the excitement he was feeling under control.

Dojo unrolled the Wu scroll as Master Fung looked on. The scroll was a magical thing that showed you the general whereabouts of the Wu you were seeking so you could find it. Dojo was the guardian of the scroll and was sensitive to its magical properties. Somehow, the Wu imparted to Dojo a sense of the activation of the Wu. It was always Dojo that called Jack. Dojo was a quirky, neurotic little reptile that Jack found amusing whenever he had the occasion to actually sit down and engage in a conversation with him.

Dojo pointed to the Wu in question, the Imo Gazer. "The Imo Gazer was used to put your opponent into a deep sleep. You look through it, and _bam_, instant nappy time. You could take down an entire army of warriors by sweeping the Gazer through the assembled ranks and viewing each one through its lens. You see why we need to make absolutely sure the Heylin Group doesn't get a hold of this! It would be disastrous! Disastrous!" the little dragon repeated, quivering. "Raimundo and the others are on a recon mission even as we speak."

Jack took in all that Dojo told him, and nodded gravely in understanding. The Heylin Group was an evil organization that was hell-bent on collecting the Shen Gong Wu, and was dedicated to the task of using them to conquer the world and impose their own dark reign over its inhabitants.

Now Jack was quite happy with the life he lived in his mansion with his servants, and enough money to buy whatever he so wished to acquire. This was why he was as equally dedicated to helping Master Fung and his apprentices to find the Wu before the Heylin Group did. No one was going to take his freedom from _him_. Not without one hell of a fight anyway.

Clearing his throat, he said, "I'm going to need to look at the Wu in the vault."

Dojo nodded and slipped down off the chair. Jack turned and made to follow after, but found himself stopped momentarily by Master Fung's hand on his shoulder.

"Please, take care and caution with you when you go, Jack Spicer. This is a very important Wu. I wish to lose neither it, nor you." The master smiled encouragingly at Jack, a smile which Jack returned, and sent him on his way.

"Hmmmm…."

Jack tapped a finger thoughtfully against his lips and considered the drawers upon drawers of Wu that had already been collected and stored in the underground vault. Which one should he pick? Which one would come in most handy for this particular mission? He took the time to study each Wu as he walked past it, well aware that he was using up precious minutes that could be being used toward gaining ground in the trek to the Temple of Sorrow so he would get there first. But this was also a serious thing for him to consider and he needed to make sure he got it right. If he picked the wrong Wu, and it turned out to be wholly useless against his enemies in the fight, then all would be for naught. No, this was something he needed to do. The minutes would not be able to be reclaimed, but that was the nature of the beast at the moment.

His eyes finally fell on one in particular and his brow furrowed in thought. The Shard of Lightning. The Shard could stop time. The little voice in the back of his mind tickled his conscious, trying to tell him something. He plucked the Wu from the drawer and turned it over in his hands. Yes, the Shard of Lightning. This was exactly the Wu he needed.

He smiled and turned to Dojo who had been watching the internal thought process play across Jack's face with great curiosity.

"I believe this one will do," he said to the little dragon. His eyes clouded over for a moment, as another thought rose upwards and occurred to him. "I think, perhaps, I should take a stick or two of dynamite with me." He nodded then, as if he were agreeing with the cleverness of his decision, and patted Dojo on the head.

Dojo watched Jack's back recede out the door and into the hallway as he attempted to ponder what on earth Jack might need a stick of dynamite for.

xsxsxs

Jack strapped himself into the seat and turned to his Yes-Bot. "I'm going to do some thinking, Yessie," he said. "Please download all known information on the Temple of Sorrow and process it. Include the geographical location data from the Wu scroll I gave you. Plot the most direct route to get there after the plane lands. Then, call the proper contacts and make the necessary arrangements."

The Yes-Bot took in all the instructions Jack gave it and nodded. "Yes, Jack! As you say, Jack!" it responded cheerily.

Jack clicked a button on the arm of his seat. "Pilot-Bot, are we ready for take-off?"

"In ten minutes, sir. The tower is making last minute confirmation of the flight plan."

"Thank you Pilot. Notify me the moment we are exactly thirty minutes from our designated landing area."

"Yes, sir."

Jack pulled on his headphones and thumbed the switch. Soothing classical music began playing and he relaxed back into his seat. Closing his eyes, he began running down all the possible combinations of how he might enter into, and plot an exit for, a fight against the Heylins. He'd been in so many temples in his life that he could easily conjure one up in his mind. Most temples had the same basic layout. There were numerous passages that would mislead you either back to the outside or to your doom depending on which ones you picked. The correct passages always led to a central chamber in which the greatest amount of information regarding the culture in question would be housed. From the central chamber there would be other passages, different from the main ones you needed to traverse to get to the chamber. These passages would lead to treasure rooms, possibly tombs and even, sometimes, to gathering rooms in which some sort of ritual might have been held.

The key to his survival would be to confront the Heylins, if it came to that, in the central chamber. Central chambers were always booby trapped just in case you managed to make it past all the traps in the passages. If he could get to the main room unscathed, even if only minutes ahead, the chances were better than good that a quick perusal of the room would yield some information about its setup that he could use in turning the traps to his advantage. In addition, he would have a lot more room to work with, and more hiding places to conceal himself in.

Jack proceeded to imagine himself in several different scenarios, all based on experiences of this kind that he'd been through in his past encounters with the Heylins and various other entities. Of course, all the scenarios placed him in the victor's position and the Heylins in the losing group.

After reaching a point where he felt he had spent enough time in planning his fighting strategy, his thoughts turned to the question of the Heylin Group themselves.

The Heylin Group had only been around for about five years or so. Conveniently, they had appeared on the radar at about the same time that Master Fung had gathered his new apprentices, and the first Wu had gone active. Over the years, the only pertinent information that Jack had been able to uncover about the group was that it was a secretive society dedicated to the ways of evil in all its various forms. The leader of the group was a man named Chase Young. He had a right-hand henchwoman named Wuya. No last name that he was ever able to find. Just Wuya.

There were whispers that a certain Pandabubba, who ran his own town – named after him of course – was an associate of Chase's who operated out in the open for no reason other than to keep Chase appraised of the goings on in the outside world, and to do some networking for him when ordered. Jack had crossed paths with Pandabubba himself once or twice – or maybe three times – in the past, and knew that Panda was a very crafty individual. He was so successful in his operation that the law had never managed to actually pin any of his crimes on him and take him off the streets.

There were times that Jack found himself wondering just how mad the Heylins might be at him for all the losses they had suffered at his hands. He usually didn't wonder too far ahead though, that he began thinking of why they hadn't simply had him picked off with a sniper by now. That was something his mental defenses wouldn't allow him to consider. Best to keep those particular thoughts wrapped up in the far, far reaches of his sub-conscious.

The sound of the steady, low drone of the plane's engines were beginning to overtake Jack's mind, drowning out the thoughts he was trying to cling to. It occurred to him that perhaps a little nap wouldn't be such a terrible thing to indulge in at the moment. He took off the headphones and turned off the music and clicked the switch to activate the chair's footrest. Sinking into the back of the chair, he allowed his senses to drift away from him, and in minutes he was fast asleep.

As agreed, the Pilot-Bot pressed the switch to activate the intercom system exactly thirty minutes before the plane was due to land.

"Mr. Spicer, sir, we are thirty minutes from our designated landing area. Pilot-Bot out."

Jack immediately stirred from his rest, the voice of the bot sinking into his unconscious mind and telling him it was time to awaken. He yawned and worked his sleepy limbs back into action, putting the footrest down and sitting forward in the seat of his chair.

"So, Yessie," he said, "are you ready to refresh my memory with the information I asked you to compile?"

"Yes, Jack! As you say, Jack!" the bot exclaimed cheerily, and launched into its tale of the known facts and history regarding the Temple of Sorrow.

Jack suppressed a smile and made a mental note to take the time to tweak the Yes-Bot's internal programming once he got back home so it wouldn't be _quite_ so annoyingly happy.

Located deep in the jungle of South America, the temple was a by product of a society in which the rulers were used to taking whatever they wished to acquire without argument over the matter. This included people. If you did argue with the ruling family, you usually ended up dead, or went missing and were never seen again.

According to the scholars, who immersed themselves endlessly in the study of such things, the temple was built when an arrogant prince of the ruling family decided he was going to take a certain young woman from a rival nation as his wife. The young woman in question was already betrothed to someone else which didn't at all faze the prince. He sent certain select members of his army over the borders into the rival city and kidnapped the princess right out from under the noses of her family. Needless to say the young lady immediately fell into a state of anguish which no doctor, priest, or sorcerer was able to pull her out of. She refused to respond to the prince which only made him angry. She stopped eating and soon fell ill from malnourishment.

All the while, the prince's enemies conspired to get their beloved princess back. None more so than the _other_ young prince to whom she was betrothed. This man rallied his army and combined it with the army of the young woman's father – which usually didn't happen until after the marriage was final – and sent it to lay siege against the nation of the ones who dared take their precious daughter away from them. Much blood was shed in the many days of fighting as the lady's true betrothed fought his way toward the temple in which the arrogant prince was keeping her housed.

The bad prince, however, was wholly unwilling to concede that he couldn't keep the girl, even in the face of the fact that she wanted nothing to do with him. He decided that if _he_ couldn't have her then no one would have her. When the good prince finally pushed his way into the temple he found the bad prince standing over her holding, quite proudly, the bloodied sword he'd used to kill her with. The good prince flew into a rage, killed the arrogant prince and then proceeded to kill himself as well.

Whether or not these were the actual, true facts of the story couldn't really be known. The story had been pieced together over the centuries by rumors, conjecture, oral folklore tales passed down from generation to generation, and a few sketchy sentences carved into some equally sketchy broken pieces of stone. It was not even clearly known whether 'Temple of Sorrow' was the correct name although, if the story_ was_ true, it certainly seemed to fit. Sometimes it was difficult to derive a proper, and literal, translation from the ancient languages as to what a certain thing was truly supposed to be called.

The Yes-Bot's lecture concluded with an overview of the kinds of booby traps that might be found within the temple; these sorts of traps being indigent of the native peoples of that day.

The lecture came to an end, the plane landed smoothly, and Jack knocked back a refreshing glass of water before he exited the plane. He stood for a moment, taking in the small, local airport in which they'd landed. The edge of the town proper which lay adjacent to the runway could be easily seen through the fence which surrounded the tiny airport property.

Jack took in a deep breath, let it out, and rested his hand casually on the holster of his gun. The time of preparing was over. The time of action was now. He didn't know what he was in for, but he felt he had mentally, and emotionally, prepared himself as thoroughly as he possibly could.

Placing one foot in front of the other, Jack strode confidently away from the plane and off in the direction of the jeep that was waiting for him.

* * *

The idea for this story came to me back in Oct. when I stumbled across the airing of the two Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies. For the record, Ms. Jolie is not my fave person/actress. However, I must truthfully admit that I found the Tomb Raider movies quite entertaining.

Now, I would have cast Rai in this as the central character (he is my fave and character of choice), but Jack is the character on the show that is predisposed to, and obsessed with, weapons of violence and mass destruction. Naturally, Jack seemed like the best choice to go with.

My reasoning with going for a 'parallel universe' tag is because there are parallels between this universe and the canon one. Master Fung, Rai & crew, and Dojo are still themselves. The noticeable difference is that the dragons don't have elemental powers, hence the need for Jack's help in collecting the Wu.  
Chase and Wuya are still Heylin, still evil, and still associates. The difference is that they aren't 1500 yr. old supernatural beings, and the Heylin is a secretive crime organization.  
Jack is still a techno geek, still enamored of the color black, and (as I mentioned) still loves playing with machinery that goes 'boom'! (or bang, in this case). The noticeable difference is that he's the good guy, and he has a backbone. No whiny, momma's boy behavior in _this_ fic.

Anyway, if you still think the 'parallel' tag is wrong, let me know and I'll change it to 'alternate' in the story summary.  
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review.

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_


	2. Chapter 2

If you wish to view the disclaimer, please backtrack to Chapter One.

**Storynote:** Most of the research I did on South America – specifically the Amazon Basin – shows up in this chapter. SIVAM stands for **Si**stema de **V**igilância da **Am**azônia (System for the Vigilance of the Amazon).

**Chapter Two**

The jeep ride was smooth going at first. It always was the closer you were to the town where you started. But, the laws of Murphy being what they are, the ride became increasingly bumpier and unpleasant the further he got from civilization. Jack swore under his breath as he swerved just barely in time to miss hitting a particularly nasty looking pot-hole in the road. Somewhere up ahead he was supposed to meet his contact who would take the jeep under his care and provide Jack with a dirt bike for the rest of the trek; at least insofar as he could go with machinery. Eventually, he would have to disembark altogether and walk/hike the rest of the way.

His two Guard-Bots, whirring almost silently beside him as he drove, were the first to bring his attention to the fact that they were nearing the outskirts of a small village. Jack slowed his speed down and coasted into the village where the native children, dressed in earthen colored garb, ran out into the dirt road to greet him, excited beyond themselves at the strange and wondrous piece of machinery Jack was commanding.

At just past what he surmised to be the midway point of the village he spotted his contact who was waving him down with a brightly colored piece of cloth and pointing to the spot where he wanted Jack to pull over and park. Jack got out of the vehicle and exchanged a sturdy handshake and warm greeting with the man. As they walked to his dirt bike, they spoke about what the general feeling was these days regarding making a trek into the heart of the jungle.

There were many things to take into consideration if you were intending to venture into the Amazon Basin. Things besides the wildlife, that is. There were drug runners that patrolled certain spots along the borders, where the forest began, and the internal borders where the jungle was carved up into different regions. There were also the native Amazon tribes that still dwelled deep within the forest; tribes that didn't want anything to do with modern society. The government was trying to crack down on the drug dealers which was why he'd ruled out using his heli-pack to enter the forest. All he needed was some overzealous narc agent from the SIVAM network spotting him skimming over the forest canopy and he'd get shot and dropped like a hot charcoal briquette. No, he'd just have to tough it the old fashioned way on this one.

After coming to the conclusion that entering into the depths of the jungle wouldn't necessarily be any worse, or better, today than on any other given day, Jack sat down on his bike, turned over the ignition, and took off.

Back in the nineteen-sixties, there were three roads that the government cut through the forest, each running east to west in an attempt to connect the eastern portion of Brazil with the western portion, and also Peru. But the roads fell barren and into ruin through lack of maintenance, and began to be reclaimed by the jungle. After forty years of neglect, Jack had serious doubts as to whether or not the roads would even be navigable at all. He was left with taking a narrow trail that his contact had told him to look for, and where. This path that ran into and through the jungle was barely discernible. To a complete novice it wouldn't have been noticeable at all. But Jack was a seasoned tracker, and he carefully drove his way along the path, swerving when necessary to remain on the trail.

The jungle began to thicken around him and a general feeling of foreboding began to tinge the air. Jack drove on for about another two miles until finally the underbrush closed in around him, the roots of the great trees became too thick for him to avoid anymore, and the path all but disappeared from view.

He brought the bike to a stop and pushed it into a scrubby bush between two thin saplings.

At this point, he needed to divest himself of his trench coat. Down here on the forest floor the temperature usually hovered around eighty degrees farenheit and since he had lost the breeze created by the bike, there was no way now to keep the humid heat at bay.

Jack shrugged off the machete sheath strapped to his back, and his satchel. He slipped off the coat, folded it in half and tied the sleeves around his waist. He put the satchel and the machete back on and took a moment to get his bearings.

Unsheathing the machete from his back, he began the arduous task of chopping his way through the underbrush, and any low hanging limbs that might impede his progress. All the while his Guard-Bots hovered near, sailing almost silently forward in tandem with his stride. The Guard-Bots had a built in state-of-the-art tracking system. The location of the temple had been given to the bots, and they used topographical data, as well as the latitude and longitude of the area to zero in on the temple's whereabouts. The bots also had a scanner. Anything that moved or breathed within a radius of three hundred yards would be spotted immediately and Jack would be notified.

On and on Jack trod, hacking at the foliage surrounding him. His limbs began to ache with the effort of chopping through his path and from time to time he cursed himself for not bringing along a couple of his Bird-Bots. They could hover up much higher than the Guard-Bots could and get a better view of the lay of the land. He had decided against bringing them because he didn't want to draw attention to the fact that there was another party approaching the temple. There was nothing worse than putting yourself in a position where you could be spotted at a distance, thereby notifying the enemy that you would soon be invading the space they were currently occupying. To do such a thing would be akin to strapping a flashing neon sign to the top of your head with an arrow pointing down to show where you were. No, he would just have to make due with the Guard-Bots. A stealthy approach was always best in these kinds of situations.

Time stretched out in front of Jack as he made his way forward toward the temple. The sounds of birds, and other animals, echoed back to his ears and were the only noises that were keeping him company in his lonely trek. Thankfully, no one came forth to challenge him; neither any unsavory characters, nor any tribal peoples. Perhaps they were taking the day off today. Finally, after what seemed like a small eternity, the Guard-Bots began chittering excitedly at him.

"It's just up ahead, Jack! There's a small rise in the land, and a stream. The temple is just beyond the stream."

Jack nodded his head. "Any other people around?" he asked.

The Guard-Bot hovered in place, a few small lights dancing across the front of its 'chest'. "No, none detected on this side."

Jack was quiet for a moment as he thought about how he wanted to approach the temple now that they were here. 'None detected on this side' could mean two things. It could mean that Jack was the first to get here, and there was nobody around that he needed to deal with. It could also mean that another group had circled around the temple and were stationed behind it so no one could see them. If the second scenario was the correct one, then there would be lookouts planted in strategic positions, watching and waiting for anyone else who might come by. Jack dawdled a few seconds longer, mulling over his options.

"We'll approach from the left."

Traditionally the left side of anything was considered the 'blind side'. If there was someone already at the temple lying in wait, Jack would gain the advantage of surprise by sneaking up on them from the left side._ Their_ left side, not his left side.

Jack slid the machete back into its sheath and crept carefully along the forest floor at a slower pace. He was mindful now of where his feet landed, and on what. Snapping twigs and crunching detritus would be a surefire giveaway. As silently as possible, he pushed the underbrush, and low hanging tree limbs out of his way being careful that, once he had passed, he turned around and gently put the foliage back in place so it wouldn't make any sort of rustling noise.

Closer and closer he came. The thick jungle forest began to thin out again just before he came to the stream. The forest peeled away from in front of him affording him a clearer view of the land yet to be crossed. By the time he reached the stream most of the temple could be seen in all its ominous glory.

Up into the forest canopy it rose, higher and higher as though it were trying to touch the sky. A giant, dark monolith it seemed to be; a blot on the land that reeked of death.

xsxsxs

Jack crouched down behind a thick tree and leaned forward slightly so he could peer around it. As he had been afraid of, someone had beaten him to the temple. That someone was affiliated with the Heylin Group. Sitting in front of the temple entrance, for Jack was actually facing the back of it, was the Tunnel Armadillo. The Armadillo had been the very first Wu that Jack had encountered. It was also a Wu that had been subsequently lost during a late night raid on the Xiaolin temple by some members of the Heylin.

Jack stared wistfully at the piece of machinery. He had a soft spot for this Wu for he had convinced Master Fung to allow it to be on 'permanent loan' to him as it was a faster, and sneakier, method of travel than being up topside. The Armadillo had allowed him the luxury of collecting many a Wu unchallenged because he got to the location in question first. The very week he had returned it to the monks, because he was taking a little vacation, was the week it had been taken. Jack decided that he wasn't leaving here without it.

Pulling back from his observances, he leaned against the tree. He closed his eyes and ran down his list of options. Half the fun of discovering a long lost temple was in walking through it, besting the booby traps and making it to the central chamber alive. No one else probably could understand this kind of mindset. Mostly, it had to do with bragging rights. Still, there was something to be said for the adrenaline rush that came with being forced to pick your own brain and think on your feet, knowing that every decision you made would either lead you to your quarry or to your doom.

Jack's hand fell to his side where his leather satchel hung against it. Inside was the Shard of Lightning he'd borrowed from the monks for this mission. There was really no other way in that he could see than to take the direct approach. In hindsight he should have thought to bring the Shroud of Shadows so he could have slipped in unnoticed.

Sighing, Jack rolled forward on the balls of his feet and stood up. He grabbed a sturdy vine hanging, rather conveniently, right in front of his face and began to climb up it. Using the rough bark of the tree, and the limbs themselves for a foothold every now and then, he made his way up the tree until he felt he was high enough to be camouflaged from sight even if the Heylin guards looked up. Tucking the vine into the waistband of his jeans, he began to slowly pick his way across several tree limbs, having at one point to hop from one limb to another. Finally, he was crouching almost directly over the guards.

He pulled the Shard from the leather pouch and held it out in front of him. He concentrated on the scene below him. He wanted to make sure that the Shard would understand that he meant to freeze the lot of them, not just a few. Invoking the name of the Shard he watched in satisfaction as the guards immediately froze in mid-movement. Putting the Shard back in the pouch, he pulled the vine from his waistband and shoved off the limb he was on. He shimmied down the vine and dropped neatly right into the midst of the frozen guards. It was a shame his mission here was so serious and would not tolerate a misstep of any kind. He really wanted to tie their shoelaces together, or unbelt their slacks and pull them down around their knees. Now _that_ would be funny. But doing so would only alert them to his presence and that was something he simply couldn't afford.

He and his Guard-Bots made their way past the guards and into the dark temple entrance. Leaning back into the protective concealment of the shadows, and shooing the bots behind him, he pulled the Shard from the satchel once again, and called its name. The first effect was reversed and the guards began moving again as though time had never stopped in the first place. Opening a side panel in one of the bots, he pulled a small listening earpiece out, and fastened it over his ear. He rotated the small dial on the top, trying to hone in on the guards conversation. He studied them for a moment, hoping that he might hear some kind of pertinent information that he could use. But the guards weren't talking about anything related to the Heylin right now, so he pushed away from the wall and began to make his way down the first tunnel.

Conveniently, the Heylin had set the wall torches on fire as they worked their way into the temple. Jack found himself following an already laid out path. All he had to do was turn only down the passages that had the torches lit. Theoretically, he would end up following the Heylins right into the central chamber. The only flaw in his plan, of course, was if the Heylins took a wrong turn and ended up getting lost, he would also get lost. When he came to the end of the passageway he was currently following he found himself facing a dead end. This was something that could potentially spell certain death for an archeologist. Should he go right? Or should he go left? Fortunately, he had his trusty Guard-Bots to help him make his decision.

"Guard-Bot, do a quick scan and tell me if you can get a fix on a large, open chamber."

The Guard-Bot proceeded to spin around in a complete circle, taking readings. "It's this way, down the right path."

Jack looked down the right-hand path, which just happened to be the path with all the lit torches, and frowned. Instinct began tickling his conscious; instinct telling him that that was way too easy. Just walk down the right path and _viola_ you were there?

"Is that a direct path, Guard-Bot, or are there a few turns?"

The Guard-Bot reanalyzed its data. "There is a left hand turn down at the end of the passageway, after that it runs straight for approximately one hundred meters and opens out into a large chamber.

Jack's frown deepened. Now he was really suspicious. He turned around and looked down the dark left-hand passage.

"We're going that way," he said, and walked forward into the darkness.

Pulling his infrared eyeglasses from an inside pocket of his trench coat, he slipped them on and thumbed the switch to activate them. "Switch to infrared vision," he ordered the bots.

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than there was a thunderous roar and the temple began shaking. Whirling around, Jack saw a blast door of carved stone begin to descend from the ceiling across the way where the right passage started. In the distance, he could hear shouts and screams, and suddenly, dust and stone rubble began to tumble into the passageway.

"Run!" he shouted, and tore off to the left even as the sound of the blast door at the end of his passageway was heard rumbling down into place.

"You know, we really don't run, Jack. We – "

"Shut up!" Jack yelled, cutting off the bot. "Just move!"

The quaking was getting worse, not less, and Jack realized it as a sign that whatever happened, it was building to a crescendo.

"Jack! The ceiling is collapsing!"

Jack's expression deepened into a scowl. "Great, why am **I** being punished?"

Behind him, the dust was gaining and he could hear the rocky rubble coming after him, snapping at his heels. He couldn't afford to look back, not that he had the time to do so anyway. His eyes were glued to the path in front of him. He turned right at one point because that was the only choice available to him. After running down this new passage for a while he suddenly found himself faced with a staircase fork. One set of stairs descended, one set of stairs ascended. Logically, he should take the up stairs, because the river of rock would go down the lower steps. But Jack once more fell back on his knowledge of how these sorts of structures were built and his gut told him to go down. He lunged forward down the lower staircase, the Guard-Bots dutifully following after. The rubble and dust poured forth down the stairs after him and Jack tried to pick up his speed just as the bottom of another ascending staircase came into view. He leaped onto the second step and hauled himself upwards as the rubble hit the bottom step and began to pile up in a heap because it had nowhere else to go.

Up, up he ran until the roaring in his ears finally began to abate, and he realized that the quaking had also stopped. He slowed his forward momentum to a halt and leaned heavily against the wall of the stair, sliding down it to rest on a step. For a long moment he sat there, breathing heavily with the exertion of his mad run to save his life. He pulled a canteen of water from the side of his utility belt, uncapped it and took a long drink.

The Guard-Bots hovered in the air in front of him awaiting his next instructions. He smiled up at them as he recapped his canteen.

"See? I knew we should go left."

* * *

Reviews?

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_


	3. Chapter 3

If you wish to view the disclaimer, please backtrack to Chapter One.

**Author's note:** I took some dramatic license with the Tunnel Armadillo in this chappie. There was never an episode where Rai & crew powered the Armadillo, but I'm still thinking it probably had four seats in it like the Silver Manta Ray. I decided to toss in an extra two seats so it would hold six. Not sure that this is a monumental thing. Still, I thought I should mention it. Also, there's some mild cursing in this chappie.

**Chapter Three**

Jack came into the central chamber by way of the ceiling.

Having reached the top of the staircase, he found himself walking out onto a ledge that overlooked the chamber proper. The bird's eye view was spectacular, even though the chamber wasn't that big.

Placing his hands on the 'shoulders' of one of his Guard-Bots, he descended gracefully to the chamber floor and began his search.

The chamber itself was a beautiful thing, or at least it had been during the height of its culture's existence. There were pretty, glittering gems of many different types set into the interior stone blocks. There were silvery things, and gold things, and ornamental vases sitting about that were elaborately painted. There were carved animal figures and still more of the typical, various items that one usually found in a temple which reflected the beliefs the people held close. The prince might have been an arrogant bastard but he sure knew how to try and impress a girl.

Jack's eyes came to rest on a thin gold rod embedded into what he'd surmised had been the bed of the young princess. Crouching down, he pulled out his work knife and began to pry it loose from the rock. The rod had pictures carved into it and, once he got it loose and pulled it out, he could see that the pictures ran the whole way around the rod. It probably told a story of some kind; perhaps related to the tragic events of the temple or perhaps not.

Jack slipped the rod into a pocket inside his trench coat and stood up. This would be the trinket he would take back with him and add to his private collection. It was a mere thing and wouldn't be missed by any museum goers.

For a long moment, Jack stared at the object which had led him to believe this was the forlorn maiden's bed. There was a sword lying across it, and the bed was covered with a thick silt which was probably the dusty remains of the three main characters, or at least the two separated lovers, in this tragic story.

He was so not touching the sword.

Not that he needed to. He had his little trinket and he was satisfied with that. Still, he was_so_ not touching the sword.

Jack watched the Guard-Bots sail around the room, stopping at every place there were carvings, or glyphs, to film them. At this point, he seriously doubted that he was going to encounter any traps of any kind. He had an intuitive feeling that, most likely, the chamber had been cleared of the fallen members of the army, leaving the two betrothed children as its only eternal occupants. He suspected that the doorway that opened into the main passage had probably been sealed up permanently, never to be entered again.

As Jack continued walking around the room, after prying his little rod from the bed, and lingering to contemplate the sword, he found his thoughts turning to the past and how he'd gotten caught up in this whole Shen Gong Wu chasing thing.

Purely by coincidence, he had come upon an underground chamber under a temple in India where Master Fung's four apprentices were searching for the Tunnel Armadillo. As it so happened, Jack got his hands on the Armadillo first, thinking that the four warriors were just another bunch of thieves that wanted to steal the object and sell it to the highest bidder. Raimundo, the leader, had challenged him to something called a 'Xiaolin Showdown', and Jack had laughed in his face. He wasn't participating in any showdown ritual. The Armadillo was his, and he would see to it that it was placed in a museum where everyone would be able to enjoy looking at it.

The declaration brought a strange response from Raimundo in the form of politely requesting that Jack return to the Xiaolin temple with him and his teammates so Jack could speak to their master, Master Fung, about the Wu and their importance in the grander scheme of things.

His immediate reply had been cut off when the chamber suddenly began to collapse. The Wu bobbled from his hands and he made a grab for it. At the same time he was yelling 'No! Tunnel Armadillo!', his hand happened to brush the object and it literally exploded into a large scale piece of tunneling machinery in front of his very eyes. Now, there were not many things in the world that could freak Jack out, but this was one of them. Jack and the warrior monks jumped into the Armadillo and tunneled down into the ground and back up to the surface to safety. He did indeed take them back to the temple where a rather animated discussion ensued as to how Jack could be capable of activating the sacred object. This, of course, was before it eventually became known to them that pretty much anyone could harness the power of the Wu as long as they held a belief in the supernatural forces that were contained within the objects. In any event, Master Fung had decided that Jack was of no harm to them, and he took Jack in and allowed him to study the ancient texts in the library that told of the story of how the Wu came to be.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Jack didn't realize that he had traversed the entirety of the chamber until he came face to face with a wall. Pulling himself from his musings, he checked the time on his watch. He'd only been in the chamber for about ten minutes. From past experience, twenty minutes was about the longest period of time that he had ever gone without being interrupted by someone else who wanted to claim what was rightfully his. He had ten more minutes, at the most, to spare to look for the Imo Gazer. Unless, of course, the Heylins had been crushed in the passageway, in which case, he had all the time in the world.

"Guard-Bots start wrapping things up! We've got ten minutes of leeway left."

Jack began to walk in earnest around the chamber, looking for the Imo Gazer. Dashi's usual mode of operation was to place the Wu in plain view, in a place where it wouldn't seem like it was in plain view. His hand ran over the stone walls of the chamber touching, every now and then, the items embedded in its surface. Nothing looked like it could double as a viewing scope to him.

After searching the last wall he turned back to the center of the room and began looking amongst all the knick-knacks sitting about. There was a thin wooden cylinder about six inches high, that had a filigree pattern carved into it from top to bottom, sitting on one of the stone pedestals. Jack's eyes were drawn to it and he studied it, brow furrowed in thought. There was something wrong with this picture. The cylinder shone with a coat of lacquer but, being made of wood, if it were a 'normal' object, it would have long rotted by now. And then there was the filigree pattern. Filigree was European in origin. This was not an indigenous object.

Jack circled the stone pedestal, studying the top of it where the Wu sat. What were the chances that the pedestal was weight rigged and as soon as he pulled the cylinder off it the chamber would begin to crumble? He couldn't see that Dashi would do such a thing for it meant that the precious artifacts inside would be destroyed.

Jack slipped his satchel off and let it drop. He spun around and looked at the floor. Surely there was something lying about that he could use to replace the Gazer on the pedestal. He found some crumbled pieces of stone and picked them up shaking them in his hand. He looked at the cylinder, then back at the stones. Picking up a few more, he made one last comparison guess and hunkered down to eye level with the Gazer and readied himself. He held his hands out, took a deep breath and, in one swift movement, peeled the Gazer from the pedestal, and replaced it with the pieces of stone in his hand. For a long moment, he stood there, unwilling to move, or alter his position in any way. He listened carefully to the chamber, but heard nothing. He cast his eyes about as best he could without moving his head too much. Nothing. Finally, he left out the breath he'd been holding and stood up.

He turned the Wu over in his hands and noticed now that it did indeed have a glass lens at the top and bottom. Smiling, he turned to find his Guard-Bots.

"Time to go, guys! Are you – "

The ground underneath Jack's feet began quaking suddenly, and violently. Jack didn't even have time to indulge in a curse word, or consider how he'd been wrong about the pedestal. The chamber heaved upwards under his feet, and exploded in a torrent of crushed stone and soil. Jack was thrown to the side, away to the left of where he'd been standing. He hit the ground on his left shoulder, and rolled as a hail of dirt and pebbles rained down upon him. He came to a stop against something hard and lay there for a while trying to catch his breath and slow the beating of his heart. Now that he was stopped, he could swear._"Dammit!"_

But as soon as the word left Jack's mouth, he realized that the quaking, just as suddenly as it hard started, had stopped. The chamber was now eerily silent and the air reeked of both a metallic and rubbery smell. Jack rolled onto his stomach and shook the debris from his head. He brushed a hand over his face and finally opened his eyes.

His hand. Jack looked down at his open palm and a spike of fear coursed through him. The Imo Gazer was no longer in his hand. Fighting back a sense of panic, he looked at the other hand that was resting on the floor supporting his weight. Empty.

Jack brought his eyes up to look out into the chamber. Sitting in the middle of the destroyed floor was the Tunnel Armadillo.

Anger flared up in Jack and he remained still as the canopy popped open and Pandabubba, and five of his hench-goons, crawled out.

"Return and get your companions!" Pandabubba ordered to the one left behind in the driver's seat. The man obediently closed the canopy, kicked the Armadillo in reverse and was gone. Panda turned to the men still with him. "We will take everything!" he exclaimed. "Leave nothing behind! We can sell everything that isn't the Imo Gazer."

Jack gritted his teeth as his anger deepened. The beautiful chamber had been mindlessly destroyed and was now going to suffer being stripped of its artifacts at the hands of these reckless thieves. Thieves who didn't even understand that the true value of the objects was in the study of them and trying to figure out what they were and how they represented the people who crafted them. Of course, all of this was secondary to what would happen if he didn't get his hands back on the Imo Gazer and fast.

Jack raised himself up on his elbows and knees and began scooting backwards away from the line of sight of the Heylins. He scuttled around behind the stone carving he had landed against and sat up against it. Casting his eyes around the immediate area of the floor he saw his leather satchel lying amongst the rubble not too far from where he was sitting. Jack's gaze narrowed in thought as he stared at it. If only he could get to it and the Shard of Lightning.

He unhooked the glocks from their holsters and pulled them out. Sooner or later Pandabubba was going to notice his two Guard-Bots unless they had found something to hide behind so they wouldn't be seen. The Guard-Bots would not fire unless ordered to, and this gave Jack an idea. He closed his eyes and tried to flesh out the idea in his mind's eye as quickly as he could. It was unfortunate that what he had in mind would create more destruction, but he needed a distraction – a very messy distraction – and he couldn't really see any other way around it.

As quickly as he could, Jack divested himself of his boots and socks. Now he was ready.

"Guard-Bots, four bolts to the ceiling!" he shouted as loudly as he could.

There was a span of silence about the length of a couple of heartbeats – there was no way that Pandabubba could not have heard him – and then the Guard-Bots began firing their lasers. Jack hauled himself up off the floor, made a mad dash for where the satchel was lying, and whirled around and started shooting in Pandabubba's direction even as the splintered ceiling above began raining down on them like shrapnel. Jack's face was tight with concentration as he shot off eight rounds from each gun and dropped two of Panda's men like flies. One of the remaining two guards had been clipped in the shoulder, and another of the bullets had gone whizzing past Panda's own ear, just barely nicking it.

The two still living guards had turned around themselves and were just on the verge of pulling the triggers on their own weapons when Pandabubba yelled,_"Stop!"_

Everything came to a screeching halt. Jack stood at the ready, eyes fierce with confidence, his guns trained on Panda and the two men. Panda, likewise, was glaring angrily at Jack, while on either side of him his men had guns trained on Jack.

No one seemed to want to speak first.

A smirk slowly crept its way across Jack's features. "Well, well, a Mexican standoff. I haven't been in one of those for a while. Nice."

"Jack Spicer," Panda said in a voice tinged with malice.

Jack frowned. "You know Panda, when you say my name like that, it sounds like a bad thing."

Panda's angry scowl deepened. Since the hunt for the Wu began on the Heylin side, Panda had had the displeasure of running into Jack once or twice – or maybe three times – and each time it had ended badly for him. Panda's eyes bore into Jack's, trying to discern what possible trickery he could throw at him this time to mess things up.

Jack's frown turned into an amused smile as his toes continued to dig into the leather satchel. His feet were hidden from view behind the pile of rubble and Panda had not a clue as to what he was up to.

"What say we put aside our weapons and come to a mutual agreement over our predicament," Panda said.

"And what agreement would that be?" Jack asked.

Panda smiled. "I take the Imo Gazer, and you can have everything else."

Jack's mouth twisted into a smirk. "I'm afraid I don't find that acceptable. How about _I_ take the Imo Gazer and _you_ can have everything else?"

"Then I would have to give you the same reply as well."

"Well, at least I can agree on one thing," Jack said.

Panda's expression turned slightly suspicious. "And what would that be?"

"Let's put away our weapons before we destroy anything else. Or the Imo Gazer will end up buried under so much rubble none of us will find it." Jack swung his arms out to the sides, while still keeping a tight grip on his guns. "Count of three?"

Panda's eyes narrowed in concentration. Jack seemed like he was acting on the up and up, but Panda was still suspicious. The Tunnel Armadillo should be coming back at any moment now. He decided he would go along with Jack, and then have his men shoot him anyway.

"Very well, Jack Spicer. On the count of three."

Jack and Panda began counting down at the same time. "One….two….three!"

Panda's men lowered their weapons, and Jack holstered his glocks. The very moment the glocks were out of his hands, Panda yelled, "Shoot him!"

Jack's foot came up out of the satchel. Hanging onto his toes by its handle was the Shard of Lightning. Jack grabbed the Shard from his toes, threw himself onto the ground as two bullets cut through the space he'd just dropped from, and yelled 'Shard of Lightning!' as he held the object out in front of him, directing it toward the three men who were trying to kill him. Light flashed out from the Wu illuminating the three men and freezing them in mid-motion.

Wasting no time, Jack hauled himself up off the ground and picked his way as quickly as he could over to the trio. He pried the guns from the men's hands and put them on the ground. Then, he patted them down, including Panda, looking for any other extra weapons they might have stashed on their persons. He came up with three more guns, and a couple of daggers.

Assembling everything in a pile, he picked the weapons up as best he could and walked back over to where he'd been standing. The entire scene had unfolded in only a few minutes of time and now the ground under his feet was vibrating again. That meant the Tunnel Armadillo was coming back.

Jack pulled a shuriken from his belt, and one of the sticks of dynamite he'd brought, and mentally readied himself. The trick he was intending to attempt next was a very big gamble indeed. If it paid off, he would walk away with not only the Imo Gazer and his life, but all the artifacts in the temple would be saved as well.

If it didn't pan out…well…then they'd all be playing checkers in Hell.

* * *

After finishing this chapter, I've decided to take FireWarrior's advice and bump this back to a K+ rating. As you can see there really isn't anything gory, or bloody, or terribly graphic in this story. I think it should be okay with the K+. However, if you disagree, please let me know.

And did you catch the scene where I pay a bit of homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark?

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_


	4. Chapter 4

If you wish to view the disclaimer, please backtrack to Chapter One.

One curse word in this chappie.

**Chapter Four**

The Tunnel Armadillo burst forth into the chamber of the temple and Jack forced himself to wait patiently as it came to a stop. As soon as it did, he loosed the stick of dynamite from his hand in the direction of the Tunnel Armadillo. He waited a beat before throwing a shuriken in the same direction. It soared gracefully after the stick of dynamite, spinning as it did so, and Jack hoisted the Shard of Lightning up just as the canopy on the Armadillo popped open with the second group of men.

"Shard of Lightning!"

The previous period of time was unfrozen and Panda and his men came back to life even as the current period of time was frozen and the men in the Armadillo were stopped in their tracks.

Panda and his two men stood blinking, and trying to regain their bearings, as Jack placed his hands on his hips and adopted a casual pose.

Panda's gaze finally alighted back on Jack and it was then that he and the two men realized they'd been stripped of their weapons.

Panda's face turned an interesting shade of red as a deep well of anger bubbled up from within him. "You – ! _You –_ "

Jack cocked a quizzical eyebrow. "There just aren't any names or adjectives strong enough to call me, are there?"

Panda growled deep in his throat. "You _dare_ mock me?"

Jack smiled. "Yes, yes I do. And it's working out pretty well for me on this end. How's it doing on yours?"

"_Jack Spicer!_ You will not get away with this!'

"Actually, I will."

Jack stretched out his arm and pointed in the direction of the Armadillo. "If you'll shift your gaze over there, you'll notice a stick of dynamite, and a shuriken, hanging in the air over your frozen men."

Jack watched with satisfaction the changing expressions that flowed over Panda's face.

"So, shall we negotiate?" He paused for a moment as Panda turned back toward him. "Here's what I'd like to propose. You and your two hench-goons leave, and I won't kill you. They," he motioned in the direction of the Armadillo, "get to live, too. I take the Imo Gazer, and all the artifacts in here go to a nice museum of my choosing.

"That is _not_ satisfactory! The Imo Gazer will be mine! I don't care if you kill them! I don't care if you kill them all!"

Panda lurched forward from the spot where he stood and made to run toward Jack. Jack pulled his glocks from their holsters and put a bullet into the ground in front of Panda's feet. Panda's feet stopped moving, and he stood there, glaring angrily at Jack.

Jack's expression had darkened considerably as well. No longer in a mood to play games, he decided that it was time to bring this confrontation to an end.

"Fine," he said, lowering the glocks so they were pointing at Panda's legs, "then I'll blow out your kneecaps and leave you for the tarantulas to eat." He paused for effect. "And then I'll do the same to your two men over there."

Panda's hands involuntarily opened and closed as his fingers flexed into fists and then relaxed again. He wanted so badly to put his hands around Jack's neck right now. Unfortunately, the look on Jack's face was rather a threatening one, and it told him that Jack would indeed do exactly what he said he would do, and without remorse.

"Fine." The reply came choked out through gritted teeth, and Panda turned and motioned to his two men to accompany him. They walked over to the hole in the ground and stood at the edge peering down.

"I don't suppose you have another Wu that would make a hole in the wall so we could walk out?" Panda asked.

"You mean, blow a hole in the wall that you can waltz through, grab any other men you have left on the outside, and charge back in here after me, weapons blazing?" Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Well, I had to try."

"Of course you did. Now, jump."

Panda lowered himself down onto the rim of the hole and slid himself down inside. The two men followed suit and Jack found himself counting again, this time until ten, before he walked over to the hole and peered down. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear muffled, angry voices drifting up from the tunnel. He took a deep breath, let it out, and told himself he could relax now, the worst part was over.

He re-holstered the glocks yet again and climbed up onto the rubble heaped over the floor. He got as close as he could to the Armadillo and jumped up onto the top of it. Shuffling carefully over to where the dynamite hung in the air, he discovered it was just out of reach as it was in the process of passing beyond the right side of the machine.

Cursing under his breath, he made a quick decision and flung himself off the Armadillo into the air toward the dynamite. He managed to grab the end of it just before he fell down onto the rubble and slid the rest of the way to the floor. Turning over onto his back, he sat up and stared at the hand that was holding the dynamite. It was intact and unexploded, as was his hand, his arm, and the rest of his body. This was a good thing. It meant he was still alive.

Slowly, he got up and walked over to a corner of the chamber where he gingerly lay the stick of dynamite. Since, technically, it was still frozen from the effect of the Shard of Lightning, he was unsure of whether or not he could utilize it for the next step in his plan.

He walked back to his previous spot and pulled the other stick of dynamite from yet another inside pocket, and pulled another shuriken from his utility belt. He sat the shuriken in front of him on the pedestal where the Imo Gazer had been and studied the ceiling over the hole where the Armadillo had exited the tunnel. He lined up the dynamite with the chosen spot of the ceiling and threw. After waiting a beat, as he had before, he threw the shuriken. Then, he hoisted the Shard with his other hand and invoked it's name.

The men in the Armadillo were unfrozen and the driver finished the task of pushing the canopy up and open, after which, he was seized with a fit of unbalance and fell headfirst over the side of the machine onto the floor. The other men jumped out of the Armadillo, still unaware that Jack was in the chamber with his glocks trained in their direction, following their every move.

The men helped their driver up into a standing position and it was then that they finally began looking around for Pandabubba and noticed their two dead comrades lying on the floor.

"What?" one of them exclaimed.

They ran over to where the men lay, and Jack decided that he was tired of being ignored. Pointedly clearing his throat in a rather loud manner, he brought the attention of the group of men around to bear on his person.

"What is the meaning of this?" one of them demanded.

Jack smiled politely and shrugged. "Hey, they were trying to kill me. It was just their turn to be unlucky this time."

"Where's Pandabubba?"

Jack nodded his head in the direction of the hole. "I sent him packing down there. And that's where you and your friends are going to go, too."

There was a moment of silence that fell after the end of Jack's sentence as the Heylin guard looked to his two closest companions, trying to decide if he should listen to Jack, or attempt a confrontation. The glint in the guard's eye did not go unnoticed and Jack stepped away from the side of the pedestal so he would have a better shot at them should it come to that.

"Before you gentlemen finalize your decision, I think you should keep in mind that I did successfully force your boss and your two remaining, living friends into surrendering and leaving. If there is any doubt in your minds that I won't be able to do the same with you, I would suggest you think again."

The guard looked from Jack, to the hole, to the dead men lying at his feet, and found himself unable to refute the evidence that supported Jack's statement. If Panda and his four men were unable to successfully stand up to this one man, then the five of them against him wasn't an indication of what you would call 'good odds'.

"I want to take our fallen with us," the guard said.

Jack inclined his head slightly. "Be my guest. But carefully, and no funny stuff."

The guard nodded and he spoke to his four colleagues who bent down to retrieve the other two men. They hoisted their dead companions up and made their way over to the hole.

Jack's entire being was coiled up like a spring; taught, ready to snap, should any of the men make a move that he so much as _thought_ was an indication that they were going to turn and try to attack him. It took every ounce of focus he possessed to keep his mind clear and his trigger fingers from twitching while he watched the Heylins guards lower themselves down into the hole after their boss.

For a scant few seconds, Jack did battle with himself over whether or not he wanted to give them enough time to get in the clear; or whether or not he wanted to just shut the hole up and the hell with whatever extra injuries the men underground may suffer. The latter feeling ended up winning out over the former and, once again, Jack found himself counting to ten. He raised the Shard of Lightning, called its name and then made a mad dash to the front of the Armadillo where he threw himself down onto the ground under the protection of its drilling nose.

The stick of dynamite hit the ceiling and dropped, placing its descent right into the path of the oncoming shuriken. The shuriken slammed into the dynamite, cleaving it neatly in two and destabilizing the delicate balance of nitro-glycerin contained within. There was a loud explosion, an accompanying fireball, and a large area of the chamber ceiling proceeded to cave in, dropping down onto, and into, the previously open hole.

Jack curled up into a fetal position and threw his hands over his head as sparks from the fireball rained down along with blasted stone, creating a thick dusty atmosphere of heated ash. His lungs protested against the unhealthy intrusion of air and Jack was seized with a coughing fit. He lay on the chamber floor, riding out the coughs which racked him while he waited for the dust to settle and clear.

After what seemed like an small eternity, Jack cautiously raised his head to look around. The air was still dusty, although not as thick as it had been immediately after the ceiling collapsed. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and sat there for a while longer with the collar of his tee shirt pulled up over the lower half of his face so he wouldn't breathe in any more ash and suffer another coughing fit. The inside of the chamber seemed as if in a fog and it was many minutes more until Jack felt he could see clearly enough that he could get up and begin the search anew for the Imo Gazer.

Pulling a hankerchief out of the back pocket of his jeans, he let the tee shirt collar slip back down into place and he held the hanky over his mouth while he wended his way back to his original starting point at the now destroyed pedestal where he'd found the Imo Gazer.

Thankful for small miracles, he found his hiking boots and socks, dusty but unscathed, and sat down to pull them back onto his feet.

"Guard-bots!"

Silence.

"Guard-bots! You can come out now!"

A gentle whirring sound was heard coming from a direction behind him and in the corner of the chamber. Jack listened, but paid it no sight, as he continued pulling on his footwear. Finally, he looked up to see one of his Guard-bots looking down at him.

"Where's the other Guard-bot?" Jack asked.

"I'm afraid it was destroyed by Panda's men."

Jack frowned but said nothing, and hauled himself up off the floor. "The Imo Gazer is somewhere around here," Jack said, sweeping his hand back and forth across the area in which they were standing. "I need you to scan for a cylindrical object, about six inches in length, with a glass lens on either end. It's wood, and carved with a filigree design."

The Guard-bot took a few moments to process Jack's instructions and form an image in its memory of what the Imo Gazer looked like based on what Jack said. Jack stepped back away from the Guard-bot and went in search of its destroyed companion. He was vaguely aware of a bluish-green light emanating from in front of the bot as it swept the ground, searching under the rubble for the Wu.

The destroyed bot lay on the floor in the back corner of the chamber opposite the corner where the stick of dynamite was. There were several bullet holes in it, and it lay dark, and unmoving on the floor. Jack sighed and picked the bot up and began making his way back toward where the other bot was hovering, using its mechanical arms to clear away some wayward pieces of rubble that had been thrown back this far against the chamber wall.

Jack worked his way over to the Tunnel Armadillo and threw the destroyed bot inside it. He then went after the stick of dynamite. Looking around he noticed that both shuriken he'd thrown had neatly embedded themselves into the chamber walls. He didn't really feel like bothering to retrieve them so he leaned back against the Armadillo and watched his remaining Guard-bot as it finally uncovered the Imo Gazer and picked it up off the floor.

It whirred over to Jack's side and deposited the item into his outstretched hands. Jack brushed the dust off it as best he could and stuck it in one of his many, many inside coat pockets. He motioned for the Guard-bot to get inside and placed his hands on the edge of the Tunnel Armadillo to hoist himself up into the driver's seat.

Suddenly, a piece of the wall of the chamber – the side that he'd decided was the front wall where the main entrance had been – disentegrated in a flash of light in front of his eyes.

Jack's heart sank and the muscles in his stomach tensed as he watched four shadowy figures emerge into the still dusky chamber through the hole that had been created. He dropped from the side of the Armadillo and his hands fell to his sides to rest on his weapons.

"Now what?" he asked, to no one in particular.

* * *

What's a temple adventure without a good explosion?

By golly, you've gotta have at least one good explosion in a temple adventure!

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_


	5. Chapter 5

If you wish to view the disclaimer, please backtrack to Chapter One.

Sorry this took an extra week to get out. I kind of ran headfirst into a couple of holiday activities known as Christmas shopping and decorating. Anyway, here's the final chappie for ya.

**Chapter Five**

"Jack? Jack?"

Raimundo swept his arms back and forth in front of him in a vain attempt to brush the lingering, dusty fog of the explosion out of his way.

"Jack, c'mon! Are you in here?"

Rai stopped at the back end of the Tunnel Armadillo and turned to his companions. "Okay, fan out. He's gotta be in here somewhere."

Rai's teammates nodded and wandered off into various parts of the temple chamber. Rai sighed and leaned heavily against the Armadillo, resting his forehead on his arm. In the back of his mind he often wondered when the time would come that Jack would finally meet up with a situation he couldn't get himself out of. Jack was like a cat. He had at least nine lives and, if you took all the extravagant tales he wove of his adventures, and the enemies he successfully defeated, at face value as the truth, well, then Jack had used up those nine lives about twice by now and was on the third go 'round.

Pushing himself off the Armadillo, Rai carefully crept around the rubble and headed off toward the front of the machine. He was entertaining a sense of dread over finding Jack's lifeless body pinned under the drilling nose when he heard a soft moan coming from that very direction.

Rai picked up his pace as best he could and found Jack lying at the base of the pile of rubble, sandwiched between two destroyed stone pedestals. Another soft, pained moan caused his brow to crease in worry as he looked down on Jack's still form. He placed his hands against one of the pedestals and pushed with all his might. It toppled over and he grabbed the end of it and dragged it a few inches away from Jack's side. He kneeled down next to Jack and put a comforting hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Jack?" he asked softly. "Hey, it's Raimundo. It's gonna be okay. We're here now. We're gonna get you out of here okay? Jack? Can you hear me?"

Jack's eyes fluttered open for a moment and closed. "Mom? Mom…I'm lost. Mom…?"

Rai frowned and stood up. "Guys!" he hissed as loudly as he dared. "Guys! Get over here, I found Jack."

Omi, Clay, and Kimiko made their way over to kneel next to Rai. Gently, Rai shook Jack's shoulder, hoping that he wasn't injuring him any more than he already was. "Jack, speak to me. Just let me know if you hear my voice."

A breath escaped Jack's lips and his eyes fluttered open again. This time they didn't close back up. "Mom?" he asked again.

Rai pursed his lips. "No, Jack. Not mom. It's Raimundo. And Omi's here, and Clay, and Kimiko."

There was a stretch of silence as they watched Jack stare vacantly at the chamber ceiling. Weakly, he managed to raise his right arm to point at something. "Lights…." he said, his voice trailing off. "Pretty lights…."

Rai rubbed his hand over his face, a grave expression appearing there as he considered his options.

"He needs a doctor. I have no idea what happened in here, but whatever it was, it really got ahold of him but good. Omi, Kimiko, you guys go back outside and find the nearest village and tell them we need a doctor on the double." He stopped and shook his head. "I don't think we should move him. Clay, you and I'll take turns guarding him and making sure the Heylins don't somehow get away from us."

Rai, Omi, and Kimiko placed their hands on their knees and pushed themselves up into a standing position as Clay settled back onto the rubble in a semi-comfortable position to take the first watch.

"Wait. You guys took out the Heylins?"

In tandem, everyone turned to look back at Jack, who was now propped up on his elbows and regarding them with a curious expression.

Rai's jaw dropped slightly, but only momentarily, as he sorted through a series of possible explanations as to how Jack could suddenly have recovered so quickly.

"You fricken' _faker_!" he exclaimed.

Jack grinned. "The expression on your face was priceless." He pushed himself up into a sitting position as the look on his face sobered. "But seriously, you guys took out the Heylins?"

After Rai counted to ten, he answered Jack's question. "Omi brought along the Sphere of Yun. Everyone's outside trapped in their own little bubble."

"Including Pandabubba?"

Rai's eyebrow scooted up into his hairline. "Even Pandabubba."

Jack's expression settled into something unreadable. "Good."

"I take it he's the one who caused all this?" Rai asked, motioning at the destroyed state of the chamber.

"He's the reason why_ I_ had to do this," Jack answered, holding out his hand finally for Raimundo to take. "A little help?"

Raimundo frowned and grabbed the hand, pulling Jack up off the ground. "You know, you could have waited for us."

Jack met Rai's statement with a frown of his own. "Oh, I could have, could I? Dojo said you guys were on a recon mission. You just showed up now! Panda and his goons were already working their way inside when I got here. If I had sat back and twiddled my thumbs waiting for you guys to get here, the whole place would have been picked clean."

"Well, you could have told Dojo to pull us out. You know we would have come to help you."

Jack brushed at his dusty jeans and shook his head. "No. Your mission was just as important as this. Besides, it wasn't like I encountered anything here that I haven't faced before with these idiots."

"You know Jack, one of these days, Chase Young is going to get tired of his people losing to you and he's gonna come after you himself. You're not indestructible, you know. You _are_ going to end up getting hurt, or worse."

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets and regarded Rai for a moment. The two weren't exactly what you would call friends. In some ways they were too much alike. Both were stubborn and prideful, and possessed of a healthy ego. Rarely did they see eye to eye on any given subject. They were more like colleagues who held a certain measure of respect for each other. But right now, Jack felt that Rai was being entirely sincere, and was genuinely worried for his life. He smiled warmly and clapped the Shoku on his shoulder. "Look, I think I'm a pretty good judge by now of whether or not I'm in a real bind. If I ever find myself thinking that I'm going into a situation I can't handle, you'll be the first one I call, okay?"

Rai mirrored Jack's smile and nodded. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Jack brushed his way past the warriors and started to climb back up the rubble to get in the Armadillo. "Now let's get out of here already, okay?"

xsxsxs

The corner of Raimundo's mouth curled in amusement as he studied the cell phone Jack was holding out in front of him.

"What, you don't speak Portuguese?"

Jack gave him a patient look and replied dryly, "I only speak dead languages. When Portuguese becomes a dead language, I'll sign up for classes. Now, if you'll _please_ dial the number I gave you…?"

Rai took the offered phone while the word 'smartass' drifted across his train of thought, and began punching the numbers in. The phone rang three times before the receptionist picked it up. In his native language, Raimundo began speaking "Yes, my name is Raimundo Pedrosa. I am calling on behalf of Jackson Spicer, the archeologist. I need to speak to your curator, please."

The secretary asked him to wait while she connected the line.

"This is Mr. Silva, the curator. You say you have a message from Mr. Spicer?"

"Actually, I'm here with Mr. Spicer at the eastern edge of the Amazon jungle. Can you answer me a question, please? Do you speak English?"

"Why, yes, I am quite fluent in English," the curator responded.

"Really? Lovely!" Rai said, switching over to English. "Can you hold please while I hand the phone to Mr. Spicer himself?"

Rai smiled cheerily and held the phone out for Jack to take. "Mr. Silva speaks English. Here, you can talk to him yourself now."

Jack bit back a response and took the phone back. "Yes, Mr. Silva, this is Jack Spicer. I have some information for you that I think you will want to move on right away. I have just returned from an excursion into the Amazon Jungle where I have found the fabled Temple of Sorrow."

The sound of the phone being dropped was heard, followed by a few choice curse words, and then fumbling as the curator went about the task of retrieving the item from wherever it had fallen.

"The Temple of Sorrow? Are you sure? People have been looking for the Temple of Sorrow for decades!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "I assure you Mr. Silva that my sanity is quite intact. If there is a suitable e-mail address that I may be given, I can send you some pictures to prove what I have said."

The curator gave Jack an address, and Jack pulled some of the pictures he'd downloaded from his Guard-Bot up onto his laptop computer screen. He attached them and sent them on their way.

On the other end of the line, the sound of a sharp intake of breath could be heard. The curator mumbled something under his breath that Jack couldn't quite make out. Then, he picked up the phone and began speaking to Jack again.

"I have received the information. What are your terms?"

"I have pocketed a trinket for myself that no one will miss, to add to my personal collection. I will take extensive pictures of it and send it to you for study. I require a one-time payment equal to one hundred thousand United States dollars. I will give you the wire number to transfer the money to. As soon as it shows up in my bank account, I will release the GPS coordinates to you so that you can send a team in to find the temple. I will also send a secondary e-mail which will have attached all the pictures that my own robot helpers took when they scanned the interior of the temple chamber. Do you find these terms sufficient?"

There was a long moment of silence and then the curator responded. "Only one hundred thousand U.S. dollars? Really? That's…not much…"

Jack smirked. "If you feel that badly about it you may go ahead and pay me double the amount I've asked for."

"Oh…um…no, no…that's…quite fine…um…one hundred thousand is quite agreeable…yes…"

"Very well, then. Do you have a pencil and a piece of paper handy so you can write down the wire number?"

The curator took down the number and assured Jack that he would have the money sent on its way before the day was over. A few more pleasantries were exchanged then, and Jack and the curator finally hung up, each satisfied that the deal had been successfully sealed.

Rai, who had been hanging around at the fringes of Jack's personal space, wandered back over to him again.

"So, it's done then, yes?"

Jack let out a sigh and clicked his laptop shut. "Yep."

Rai draped his arm over the windshield of the jeep. "Seems kinda sad that it's over."

Jack turned his gaze out over the village, and it settled on some children who were playing with a simple hoop toy. "Yeah, it's…a little depressing after it's over. But, I know there will be a next time, so…it doesn't take too long to bounce back."

Rai nodded his head. "Mmmm… So…why do you do it, Jack? I've often wondered that. Why do guys like you come out here to places like this and put yourself deliberately in harm's way to dig up this old, ancient history? I mean, I know that you're helping us collect the Wu so the Heylins won't get it. But, besides that. You were in the archeological biz before we crossed paths."

Jack's eyes took on a faraway look as he internalized his thoughts, searching for an answer to Rai's questions. "This village…the towns we live in…the cities, the rural farms. Centuries from now, there will be other archeologists who will come here, and to those places where we – you and I – used to live. They'll dig up those towns, and cities, and farms just like we do today, and they'll study what they've found and they'll ask themselves, 'Why did they lead the lives they led? What were they looking for? What were they hoping to accomplish by living this way? Were their lives meaningful to them?'"

He paused for a moment then before continuing. "Sometimes I think the human race feels like it's stumbling along blindly trying to just make the best of what fate has handed to them. We look back over the centuries and we see that that's pretty much what any of our ancestors have always done themselves. We make what we can out of our lives with what we inherit from the previous generations. If our ancestors were able to do the same thing way back then, leading such primitive lives – compared to today's standards – as they had, then there's surely hope for the rest of us. Hope that we can survive the mistakes we make, and the mistakes that other people make that we end up having to deal with. Hope that, in the end, it'll all work out okay and things will continue to get better for the generations to come."

Rai propped his chin in his hand and regarded the children that Jack was watching, playing with their simple, little hoop toy. "Gee, you know Jack, I didn't realize that you were both a gentleman, _and_ a scholar. Here I thought you were just a scholar."

Jack turned to look at Raimundo. "Gosh, Rai, for a fleeting moment there I almost –_almost_ – got the feeling that you and I might take a liking to each other if we put our minds to it."

An amused smile crossed over Rai's face. "Yeah, well," he patted Jack's arm, "don't dwell on that too much, 'kay?" He walked off then to round up his wayward teammates so they could finally begin the trek home.

Jack turned back to watch the children as they continued to laugh and play through the dusty lanes of their village, and he smiled.

"I do _so_ love my job."

finis

* * *

Thus endeth my little foray into writing a fic with Jack as the main character. I just couldn't, couldn't, couldn't bring myself to have Jack and Rai detest each other. Nope, just couldn't do it.

Thanks so much to everyone for reading, and especially to those who took the time to leave reviews.

And now, it's time for a nice, long holiday break…

For those of you who celebrate Xmas, I wish you a peaceful and joyous Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. God Bless!

For those of you who don't celebrate Xmas, I wish you a happy and joyful New Year. Be safe!

See ya on the flip side…

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_


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